White Sox All-Draft Pick Team

The White Sox have gotten a lot of flack for their drafts, more specifically draft spending. They have had some good picks that developed into solid ball players so let's take a look at the best of that group for the last decade (2001-2010). This is an attempt at a 25-man roster based on the best Major League performance by these players. Some players got moved around to fit the roster better, but you get the general idea.

Beckham is at shortstop because the only other shortstop option was Andy Gonzalez and Beckham started his pro career at short. In the outfield it's pretty much a toss up after Sweeney and Young. Cunningham was chosen because he just turned 25 and could still have a productive career while Anderson is currently pitching and Reed and Fields are also in the minors. Five hitters is a large bench and Reed and Fields are pretty much redundant, but I had more trouble finding a 12th pitcher to take as seen below.

Starting RotationGio Gonzalez

Clayton RichardDaniel HudsonBrandon McCarthyJohn Ely

This is almost certainly the strength of the team. Gonzalez is a passable top of the rotation option. Richard, Hudson and McCarthy have all shown they can stick in the Majors as a starter. Ely has struggled in the Majors, but he's only this team's No. 5.

There's a few decent names in here, but it was pretty hard to fill out this bullpen. A lot of other pitchers drafted by the Sox have earned a cup of coffee (listed below), but nothing more.

Overall, this isn't a good team and that's not going to surprise anyone. What interested me is that in the middle part of the decade the perceived strength in the system was outfield and the weakness was pitching. As it turns out, the opposite ended up coming true.

For reference here are the other pitchers that at least pitched in a Major League game (unless I missed someone there were no other hitters):Charlie Haeger, Royce Ring, Josh Rupe, Sean Tracey, Fernando Hernandez, Wes Whisler, Jack Egbert, Lance Broadway, Dan Cortes, Aaron Poreda

And to be fair if I include all active players you can add Jon Rauch, Matt Guerrier, Aaron Rowand and Mark Buehrle. That becomes a pretty solid pitching staff and Rowand fills out the outfield nicely. Still lacking with the lineup though.